Hi, like most of Starcraft players out there, i'm also eagerly anticipating for the release of Wings of Liberty. I am aware that Blizzard has taken a new approach to the development of the campaign. Players are allowed to explore the Hyperion and interact with consoles which serves a special function eg Purchase new units for the following mission. Furthermore, the entire campaign spans over 30 missions and allows us to interact with key characters from the Starcraft Universe. That particular idea is quite innovative in my opinion, it did remind me of BioWare's KOTOR series which i love. Though i'm not quite sure regarding the length of the terran campaign. Blizzard has voiced that the Terran campaign will follow a mercenary style approach, effectively allowing players to choose the missions they would undertake. I believe, 30, is far too less given the type of campaign, prehaps not even enough to completely draw the entire Terran side of the story,especially taking the complexity of Starcraft's plot into account. Also, i'm also quite concerned over Blizzard's ability to effectively develop captivating dialogue options which actually allow the players to decide on choices which does not only lead to them the 'GOOD' and 'EVIL' side. This is highlighted in games like WoW, where the player will almost inherently kill X amount of enemies to obtain X amount of Loot and deliver to X NPC, the process is then thrown into another vicious cycle of killing X amount..etc. These quests do not give much depth to the plot or character development, it's almost forcing the player to embark on a mindless journey of slaying hordes of monsters in return for some valuables and reward the player with a mediocre dialogue. I really do hope Blizzard can manage to deliver a good in-game player driven dialogue to ensure that the player has, at least that much freedom in leading their character.
30 missions is as long as the original starcraft campaigns, did that show the story well enough? Each race's was a third of that. I think the player choices are limited to choosing your next mission, i'm not really a fan of a dialogue driven plot for reasons you stated, especially in an RTS, not sure how much blizzard has said in regards to that other than choosing mission paths.
I have confidence in Blizzard's ability to relay a story in the space of thirty missions. As stated by overmind above me, the original game and then the expansion were both 30 missions each and they told the story quite effectively. Thirty levels is a lot of game, its going to take a while to get through- unless you cheat As far as character development goes, I wouldn't say its really fair to compare what SCII could be to what WoW is. Development of a character in a game like a strategy game is going to be quite different than development of a character in an MMO. First of all, the strategy game is going to be much more controlled than an MMO is. Its much easier for the designers to direct the course of the story in a single player game than in a massive online one. Additionally, the strategy game isnt going to be a victim of the grindfest that an MMO has to be. Its just the way that the game is designed.
I can has a paragraphs? With Starcraft story will be a large concern. Correct me someone if I'm wrong, but I think that Blizzard has mentioned that the next Warcraft RTS will ignore everything that happened in WoW, ie Illidan, Arthas will still be alive, plus all other killable NPC's The point being with Blizzard's RTSs, well actually everything BUT WoW, story has been just as important as gameplay. Blizzard won't let the choices the player makes affect the story too much. They have to make two more games, remember?
